This is a guest blog post from Mark Williams-Cook ofCandour, following his talk atThe Marketing Meetup: Norwich.This blog post is designed to complement the talk, giving you a summary of the key takeaways (with slightly less Lord of the Rings).If you would like to listen to the full talk, check out the podcast player at the top of the page!

Starting your own paid search campaign as a small business can be a daunting task – and rightly so, while the attraction of paying to connect yourself with search audiences is alluring, the market is highly competitive and shows little mercy to errors or inefficiency, so what can you do to get by with small budgets?

Realise the deck is stacked against you by Google

While thesmart campaigns that Google Ads encourages you to set up by default are somewhatsuperior to the classic Google Adwords Express, many of the default options will gear you towards a “spend and cut back” strategy, rather than a more cautious “spend and increase” strategy. If you’re not paying management fees of aPPC agency, there is no reason you need to rush your media spend, through Google.

There are some specific things you can look out for during setup:

Avoid broad match keywords

During the setup process, Google will ask you to enter keywords to trigger your ads. By default, these will be “broad match” keywords, meaning a wide variety of variations and related keywords will trigger your ads that will give opportunity for much wasted spend unless it is closely managed. With small budgets usingphrase match andexact match with your keywords will allow for a narrow-to-broad strategy, saving your budget for keywords that really work.

Sticking to Google Search

By default, your search campaign will opt you in forGoogle Search Partners, meaning your ads can appear on search results pages, on site directory pages, or on other pages related to a person’s search. In our experience, search partners tend to provide lower quality traffic and if you’re on a tight budget, it is usually best to stick with core Google Search.

Being careful with location targeting

It is easy to assume that selecting a geographic area will mean your ads will only show to people in this location. In fact, the default setting is for “People in, or who show interest in, your targeted locations”. While this does make sense, Google as demonstrated it isn’t always perfect at working out which area searchers are interested in, even showing ads for the wrong country. For more control, use the “People in your target locations” option and use separate campaigns if you want to target areas outside of this.

Understanding success with Google Ads is more than Google Ads

Baked into the very core of the Google Ads system and how Google decides how to rank its ads are factors such asquality score. Quality score looks at the click-through rate of your ads, your ad relevance and landing page experience. This means, for instance, that sending mobile searchers to a slow loading website that’s not mobile-friendly can vastly increase your cost per click (CPC).

This is compounded by the conversion rate of your site – the percentage of visitors actually do the action you want them to do. If your site converts at 1% and your competitors at 2%, this effectively means that all other things being equal, they can afford to pay twice as much per click as you. In reality, things are rarely equal and these factors are usually related, as we all know,slow sites convert poorly, so slow sites can mean increasing your cost per sale four fold.

Tracking is a must

Some of the most common complaints we encounter when taking over PPC accounts is either the client is not sure of what is exactly attributed to Google Ads, or they are, and they are not getting the quality enquiries they need. There is no reason in 2019 why we should not have full tracking for our Google Ads campaigns. This means being able to track clicks to on-site conversions and if you’re a lead generation site, follow that lead into your CRM system.

Many off the shelf CRM systems such asSalesforce have built-in integrations with Google Ads, which means you can optimise for quantity of leads, with the context of quality. It may be a little bit of investment to get this set up before you begin, but we would not recommend going ahead without it.

Bing – remember me?

Microsoft’s Bing search engine still has a respectable search volume and can offer a much more attractive cost per click than Google Ads. The great thing aboutBing Ads is that it offers you the ability todirectly import your running Google Ads campaign, meaning the time investment to get going is almost zero. Test and get your campaigns in good shape using the traffic volume of Google and continue to export these working campaigns into Bing to effortlessly improve profits!

If you want a friendly chat about anything digital from brand to Bingcontact Candour or e-mail Mark directly mark@withcandour.co.uk

Success!

]]>https://themarketingmeetup.com/google-ads-for-small-budgets/feed/0Content marketing for small teams: The Fundamental Checklisthttps://themarketingmeetup.com/content-for-small-teams/
https://themarketingmeetup.com/content-for-small-teams/#respondFri, 01 Mar 2019 13:02:23 +0000https://themarketingmeetup.com/?p=997The post Content marketing for small teams: The Fundamental Checklist appeared first on The Marketing Meetup.
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This is a guest blog post from Helen Brooks of Further, following her talk at The Marketing Meetup: Norwich.This blog post is designed to compliment the talk, providing you the opportunity to quickly glance at all the info you need to check if your content is hitting the spot.If you would like to listen to the full talk, check out the podcast player at the top of the page!

The checklist below follows my presentation on content marketing for small teams. Marketers can use this checklist as a best practice ‘cheat sheet’ for content creation and tool for evaluating the success of a campaign. You can use this to help map out a strategy for the year, and/or for each individual content piece created.

While this is mainly for long-form written content, it can also apply to other content types like videos, podcasts and galleries. Whatever format you are working in, make sure that:

your content is relevant to your brand and your target audience

it is high-quality

it reaches the audience it is aimed at

you identify ways you can improve your research, production and promotion.

This approach is flexible, which is ideal for small teams that have varying budgets, capacity and expertise. For example, money isn’t the only factor that correlates with content quality. While it can make an help, there are ways you can improve the quality of your content simply by ensuring a clear structure.

Relevancy

Define why you need content, what your brand wants to say and to whom.

Set your content marketing objectives

Define your brand values and mission

Map out what you know about your target audience (start with why people need your product or service and break this down as far as you can. If you have multiple audiences, tackle them one at a time)

Use your map of audience interests to research relevant topics online

Define the topic or topics you want to create content for

Define the essential components of that topic (what is everyone else talking about) by reviewing top ranking pages

Create your content in the medium most relevant to the topic.

Quality

Make your content engaging using a clear structure, style and formatting, and imagery.

Include an introduction to the topic

Include clear section headings (often defined during the research phase)

Break up block text with pull quotes, bullet points and/or infoboxes

Add a call to action (making sure you have first sold your brand and shown its relevance to the interests of your target audience)

Don’t let the acronyms and technical terminology fool you – there’s nothing confusing about printing. Designers, printers and agencies are naturally predisposed to try and make it sound like they have mastery over a dark art that nobody else would understand, but once you strip out the acronyms, jargon and industry-specific terminology, it’s a relatively simple process.

So if you don’t know the difference between CYMK and RGB and you’re worried about dealing with any non-medic who talks about checking your bleed, then this explanation should set your mind at ease.

As with so many things, the fact that you can go direct to printers and manage the process online means that you can have complete control over the options and the costs to make your project work for you. It is also easier than ever to understand the fundamentals:

Paper

Binding

Print

File Setup

Paper

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Print File Setup

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

When you’re planning your magazine, booklet, brochure or catalogue, you will need to think about what kind of binding you will have and there are three main types:

Staple bound – this is often called saddle stitch, but it is basically staples through the middle of the pages holding them together.

Perfect bound – this is a square edged spine which can only be achieved with a booklet that has enough pages.

Wiro bound – your booklet will be held together with looped wire rings

There is a fourth option – case bound – which effectively produces a hardback book, but it is an expensive and complex process which isn’t normally necessary except for very specific marketing materials.

Your choice of binding will be affected by the purpose of your materials, but price will also be a consideration. A 20-page comic book will usually be staple bound, whereas a 200-page glossy magazine will be perfect bound. If you’re producing a substantial technical booklet, wiro binding combined with thick paper is the most durable and practical option.

The type of binding you choose will make a difference to the way your pages are laid out, which you will need to consider during your print file set up. You will need to make space for the binding you have opted for, but as long as you are aware of that, it is simple to do.

Print File Setup

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Binding

When you’re planning your magazine, booklet, brochure or catalogue, you will need to think about what kind of binding you will have and there are three main types:

Staple bound – this is often called saddle stitch, but it is basically staples through the middle of the pages holding them together.

Perfect bound – this is a square edged spine which can only be achieved with a booklet that has enough pages.

Wiro bound – your booklet will be held together with looped wire rings

There is a fourth option – case bound – which effectively produces a hardback book, but it is an expensive and complex process which isn’t normally necessary except for very specific marketing materials.

Your choice of binding will be affected by the purpose of your materials, but price will also be a consideration. A 20-page comic book will usually be staple bound, whereas a 200-page glossy magazine will be perfect bound. If you’re producing a substantial technical booklet, wiro binding combined with thick paper is the most durable and practical option.

The type of binding you choose will make a difference to the way your pages are laid out, which you will need to consider during your print file set up. You will need to make space for the binding you have opted for, but as long as you are aware of that, it is simple to do.

Print File Setup

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

Covers

If you are considering printing a booklet, whether that is a magazine, catalogue or brochure, you should add a proper cover. This will usually be four sides of thicker paper at the front and back which not only makes your booklet look sleek and ‘put together’ but also prevents the thinner inner pages from damage.

Lamination

Laminating protects your printed materials, so its ideal for everything from business cards to posters and we always recommend lamination for the covers of booklets. It contributes to the professional look and feel and makes your printed materials more durable.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are lots of options for finishes, but knowing the difference between the two main ones will usually be enough for most jobs.

Matt lamination – this is a smooth protective coating

Gloss lamination – this is a smooth protective coating with a glossy shine

These effects of these finishes are similar to the difference between silk/satin and gloss paper and also offer additional protection for the paper they are applied to.

So, if you choose a gloss paper cover finished with a gloss lamination, the end result will be incredibly shiny and the contrast between colours will be striking.

If you go for a silk/satin cover and matt lamination, your end product will have a standard matt finish.

For those who still aren’t sure what they want, a silk/satin paper with a matt lamination is a default option which will give you great results.

Binding

When you’re planning your magazine, booklet, brochure or catalogue, you will need to think about what kind of binding you will have and there are three main types:

Staple bound – this is often called saddle stitch, but it is basically staples through the middle of the pages holding them together.

Perfect bound – this is a square edged spine which can only be achieved with a booklet that has enough pages.

Wiro bound – your booklet will be held together with looped wire rings

There is a fourth option – case bound – which effectively produces a hardback book, but it is an expensive and complex process which isn’t normally necessary except for very specific marketing materials.

Your choice of binding will be affected by the purpose of your materials, but price will also be a consideration. A 20-page comic book will usually be staple bound, whereas a 200-page glossy magazine will be perfect bound. If you’re producing a substantial technical booklet, wiro binding combined with thick paper is the most durable and practical option.

The type of binding you choose will make a difference to the way your pages are laid out, which you will need to consider during your print file set up. You will need to make space for the binding you have opted for, but as long as you are aware of that, it is simple to do.

Print File Setup

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

The choice of paper can seem overwhelming if you encounter a printer who wants to hold forth about the hundreds of options that there are if you really delve into the world of paper. However, there are only four paper types that you actually need to know about:

Silk/Satin – This is one of the most commonly used types with a smooth, silky finish

Gloss – This paper has a really shiny finish and is usually used for photo albums

Uncoated – This has a rough finish and colours are duller with a more vintage look

Recycled – This is much rougher with a more noticeable texture and even duller colours

Silk/satin paper is usually the default option for all but the most specialist print jobs. Other paper types are generally chosen to convey a particular artistic idea in order to add a specific feel to your material.

For example, if you are promoting your street food van and hoping to attract a hipster clientèle, using recycled paper will convey an authenticity that might appeal to your target demographic. Similarly, a firm of lawyers will use silk/satin paper and a photographer is likely to use gloss paper to showcase their skills with a high-quality print.

These papers all come in a range of thicknesses which are measured in gsm in Europe and lbs in the US.

Covers

If you are considering printing a booklet, whether that is a magazine, catalogue or brochure, you should add a proper cover. This will usually be four sides of thicker paper at the front and back which not only makes your booklet look sleek and ‘put together’ but also prevents the thinner inner pages from damage.

Lamination

Laminating protects your printed materials, so its ideal for everything from business cards to posters and we always recommend lamination for the covers of booklets. It contributes to the professional look and feel and makes your printed materials more durable.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are lots of options for finishes, but knowing the difference between the two main ones will usually be enough for most jobs.

Matt lamination – this is a smooth protective coating

Gloss lamination – this is a smooth protective coating with a glossy shine

These effects of these finishes are similar to the difference between silk/satin and gloss paper and also offer additional protection for the paper they are applied to.

So, if you choose a gloss paper cover finished with a gloss lamination, the end result will be incredibly shiny and the contrast between colours will be striking.

If you go for a silk/satin cover and matt lamination, your end product will have a standard matt finish.

For those who still aren’t sure what they want, a silk/satin paper with a matt lamination is a default option which will give you great results.

Binding

When you’re planning your magazine, booklet, brochure or catalogue, you will need to think about what kind of binding you will have and there are three main types:

Staple bound – this is often called saddle stitch, but it is basically staples through the middle of the pages holding them together.

Perfect bound – this is a square edged spine which can only be achieved with a booklet that has enough pages.

Wiro bound – your booklet will be held together with looped wire rings

There is a fourth option – case bound – which effectively produces a hardback book, but it is an expensive and complex process which isn’t normally necessary except for very specific marketing materials.

Your choice of binding will be affected by the purpose of your materials, but price will also be a consideration. A 20-page comic book will usually be staple bound, whereas a 200-page glossy magazine will be perfect bound. If you’re producing a substantial technical booklet, wiro binding combined with thick paper is the most durable and practical option.

The type of binding you choose will make a difference to the way your pages are laid out, which you will need to consider during your print file set up. You will need to make space for the binding you have opted for, but as long as you are aware of that, it is simple to do.

Print File Setup

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

The choice of paper can seem overwhelming if you encounter a printer who wants to hold forth about the hundreds of options that there are if you really delve into the world of paper. However, there are only four paper types that you actually need to know about:

Silk/Satin – This is one of the most commonly used types with a smooth, silky finish

Gloss – This paper has a really shiny finish and is usually used for photo albums

Uncoated – This has a rough finish and colours are duller with a more vintage look

Recycled – This is much rougher with a more noticeable texture and even duller colours

Silk/satin paper is usually the default option for all but the most specialist print jobs. Other paper types are generally chosen to convey a particular artistic idea in order to add a specific feel to your material.

For example, if you are promoting your street food van and hoping to attract a hipster clientèle, using recycled paper will convey an authenticity that might appeal to your target demographic. Similarly, a firm of lawyers will use silk/satin paper and a photographer is likely to use gloss paper to showcase their skills with a high-quality print.

These papers all come in a range of thicknesses which are measured in gsm in Europe and lbs in the US.

Covers

If you are considering printing a booklet, whether that is a magazine, catalogue or brochure, you should add a proper cover. This will usually be four sides of thicker paper at the front and back which not only makes your booklet look sleek and ‘put together’ but also prevents the thinner inner pages from damage.

Lamination

Laminating protects your printed materials, so its ideal for everything from business cards to posters and we always recommend lamination for the covers of booklets. It contributes to the professional look and feel and makes your printed materials more durable.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are lots of options for finishes, but knowing the difference between the two main ones will usually be enough for most jobs.

Matt lamination – this is a smooth protective coating

Gloss lamination – this is a smooth protective coating with a glossy shine

These effects of these finishes are similar to the difference between silk/satin and gloss paper and also offer additional protection for the paper they are applied to.

So, if you choose a gloss paper cover finished with a gloss lamination, the end result will be incredibly shiny and the contrast between colours will be striking.

If you go for a silk/satin cover and matt lamination, your end product will have a standard matt finish.

For those who still aren’t sure what they want, a silk/satin paper with a matt lamination is a default option which will give you great results.

Binding

When you’re planning your magazine, booklet, brochure or catalogue, you will need to think about what kind of binding you will have and there are three main types:

Staple bound – this is often called saddle stitch, but it is basically staples through the middle of the pages holding them together.

Perfect bound – this is a square edged spine which can only be achieved with a booklet that has enough pages.

Wiro bound – your booklet will be held together with looped wire rings

There is a fourth option – case bound – which effectively produces a hardback book, but it is an expensive and complex process which isn’t normally necessary except for very specific marketing materials.

Your choice of binding will be affected by the purpose of your materials, but price will also be a consideration. A 20-page comic book will usually be staple bound, whereas a 200-page glossy magazine will be perfect bound. If you’re producing a substantial technical booklet, wiro binding combined with thick paper is the most durable and practical option.

The type of binding you choose will make a difference to the way your pages are laid out, which you will need to consider during your print file set up. You will need to make space for the binding you have opted for, but as long as you are aware of that, it is simple to do.

Print File Setup

Your print file, sometimes known as your artwork file, is the digital design for your booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever marketing material you want to print.

The first thing to consider is the size of your finished product and how you want it to be bound (if it will need binding) because that will determine the basic area you are working with. Once you have that sorted out, you can add your bleed area and your quiet area easily.

This guide will talk you through the process of setting up your print file, including all the print marks you will need to include. There are also a number of free templates you can download if you want to.

Size

You will probably have some idea what size would be most appropriate for the materials you have planned. In the UK, A4 and A5 are the most common throughout the UK and Europe, whereas the US favours 8.5” x 11” and 5.5” x 8.5”. Unsurprisingly, your design will need to fit into your chosen size.

Trim Line

As the name suggests, the trim line is the place where the print machine will trim the edge of the paper to create your item. Your trim lines will follow the dimensions of your chosen paper size, and although this should be the edge of your item, the printing process is subject to small discrepancies.

Bleed Area

Whatever size you choose, you will need to include a bleed area which will extend 3mm or 0.125” outside your trim lines on each side of your page.

Your design will need to extend into the bleed area but you should expect it to be cut off during the printing process. The cutting blades should fall somewhere between your trim lines and the edge of your bleed area and extending your design beyond the edge of the paper prevents your final piece from ending up with a white border around the edge.

Including a margin of error is one of the most important things about setting up your print file. Factoring in the minuscule discrepancies in the printing process ensures that the end result looks as you expect it to.

Quiet Area

The quiet area is the area 5mm or 0.2” inside the trim line. It fulfils two functions: to give the same leeway for the cutting blades as the bleed area when it comes to the potential for the pages to be cut slightly inside the trim lines; and to give some physical space between the edge of your artwork or text and the edge of the page.

If your text or important elements of your image go right to the edge of the page, your finished product will look cluttered and disorganised whereas leaving a proper quiet area will give a little space to your artwork.

If you have chosen perfect or wiro binding, then you will need an additional quiet area to account for the portion of each page that will be used to form the spine.

For perfect binding, the quiet area extends in for 12mm or 0.5” from the trim line on the spine side of the page. It is important to remember that this quiet area applies to the cover as well as that will also have a binding line.

If you have chosen wiro binding, your quiet area will need to extend 20mm or 0.8” from the trim line on the spine side as this room will be needed for the holes and ring binding.

Staple bound booklets only require the standard 0.5mm or 0.2” quiet area inside the trim lines because the binding method and positioning doesn’t encroach onto the page in the same way that the other options do.

CMYK and DPI

Most printers will ask you to submit your artwork through an online system, there will be some technical requirements in order to ensure that your artwork looks the way you want it to.

You will get the best results from uploading PDF files exported from inDesign using the ‘high quality print’ setting. Your images will need to be at least 300 dpi, higher if you can, as otherwise, your images may look grainy and poor quality in print.

You should also ensure that your files use CMYK colour as any files with RGB colour will be converted to CMYK for the printing machines which could leave you with some discrepancies between the colours in the finished product. They may be close, but the chances are they won’t match exactly which could change the whole tone of your artwork.

We recommend that you use ISO coated V2, U.S. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 colour profiles, so ask your designer if you have no idea what that means, as they should understand.

Booklet Examples

To pull all your new-found information together, here are some examples of popular combinations of the various elements:

1. Staple Bound Booklet

A5 pages

20 sides

Staple bound

Silk/Satin 100gsm paper

Silk/Satin 170gsm cover paper laminated with a matt finish

5mm quiet area on all sides

These are the specifications for a typical booklet.

2. Perfect Bound Magazine

A4 pages

40 sides

Perfect binding

Silk 100gsm paper

Gloss 170gsm cover paper laminated with a gloss finish

3mm bleed area all round

5mm quiet area all round

12mm quiet area on the spine side of all pages and cover

Most people who choose to go for perfect binding also opt

for a glossy cover laminated with a gloss finish and silk/satin pages. The overall effect is of a high-quality product which looks and feels slick and upscale.

3.Recycled Engineering Manual

A5 pages

24 sides

Wiro binding

Recycled 170gsm text paper

Recycled 200gsm cover paper

When using wiro binding, extra thick paper makes the end result more durable.

If you opt for uncoated paper or recycled paper, then it’s worth considering using thinner paper as this contributes to the rustic feel of your finished product. You cannot apply a lamination to recycled or any other uncoated paper, but this isn’t usually a problem as the nature of the paper means that it soaks up colour really well so they will not fade over time in the same way that silk or gloss papers do.

Conclusion

Brochures, catalogues, magazines and booklets are some of the more complicated marketing materials that you are likely to want to print. Now you know how to choose your materials and set up your print file for those, a flyer, postcard, poster or business card will be a simple task.

With your new-found knowledge, you can ensure that you are in full control of your marketing materials from now on. When you don’t have to rely on someone else to set up your printing, you can shop around for the best prices online and you might be surprised at what you can get for your money.

About the Author

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager at Mixam. Having successfully launched in the US, the UK based company is rapidly expanding by disrupting the online market with fresh ideas, new innovations and a real passion for printing.

Success!

]]>https://themarketingmeetup.com/guide-to-printing/feed/0Top 5 marketing priorities for 2019 – Mira Nairhttps://themarketingmeetup.com/top-5-marketing-priorities-for-2019-mira-nair/
https://themarketingmeetup.com/top-5-marketing-priorities-for-2019-mira-nair/#respondWed, 09 Jan 2019 16:15:30 +0000https://themarketingmeetup.com/?p=773This post was originally published on Mira’s LinkedIn here. Another New Year ritual is upon us as marketers. Predictions of top 2019 marketing trends now abound. They may seem bewildering in their diversity. It’s like that proverb about blind people feeling different parts of the elephant and coming to different conclusions about what animal it […]

Another New Year ritual is upon us as marketers. Predictions of top 2019 marketing trends now abound. They may seem bewildering in their diversity. It’s like that proverb about blind people feeling different parts of the elephant and coming to different conclusions about what animal it is. We each see different trends, depending on whether we have primarily a business strategy, technology, or perhaps data analytics view. So, how can we sort through this maze of choices?

I like to distinguish marketing fundamentals from marketing technology choice. In my New Year’s eve blog, I offered three pre-requisites I see prior to taking the plunge into adopting new marketing technologies; in summary, know your customer pain points and how they interact with your touch points, and harness all your enterprise-wide resources towards customer focus. Easy to capture in one breath, tough in practice to get right all the time. Clearly, companies differ in their starting points and corporate transformation is never really linear. In practice too, the pre-requisites I identified and technology choice can never be neatly separated and sequenced. Nonetheless, getting the fundamentals right is useful to minimise the risks of costly mistakes. Depending on where they stand with respect to these prerequisites, enterprises may be differently positioned to successfully follow the latest marketing technology trends.

I also made a New Year promise to review projected 2019 marketing trends. Below are five priorities I selected from among technology, business strategy, and data analytics trends. All of them involve technology choice which should be subordinated to business vision and strategy. Collectively, these five priorities represent a continuum of closely inter-related challenges with which I expect most marketers and their leadership to intensely grapple in 2019. Notwithstanding differences across verticals and industries, I would expect these five priorities to prevail one way or the other at the forefront of marketing leadership thinking this year albeit with variations from heavily B2C to primarily B2B enterprises, and from large to small businesses:

5) End-to-end customer centricity

Integrating enterprise-wide customer focus will be the essential glue which organizationally ties together the above four priorities. For example, just visualize what seamless cross-silo workflow it takes to make omnichannel marketing work smoothly with social media analytics while integrating platforms. Marketers ensure that all customer touch points feed the data scientist the raw material to model the optimal shipment point to anticipate and fulfill an order, which the developer then turns into a fulfillment app used by inventory-optimizing supply chain managers. Completing the data loop at the customer touch point, the contact agent uses real-time access to customer profiles for instantly actionable order execution and fulfillment confirmation while also exploiting cross-sell and up sell opportunities. In 2019, AI tied to large data sets will multiply opportunities for such seamless customer experience. Yet, as I highlighted in my previous blog, end-to-end enterprise-wide customer centricity involve technology enablers which require C-suite leadership to drive collaborative integration across the enterprise. Expect 2019 to demand more than ever that CIOs and CMOs in particular will need to champion one another’s role (and budget) to realize the holy grail of fully delightful end-to-end customer experience.

Feel free to follow my Twitter account for continued analysis and updates. I also appreciate your feedback.

]]>https://themarketingmeetup.com/top-5-marketing-priorities-for-2019-mira-nair/feed/0Back to basics – Nicola Brayhttps://themarketingmeetup.com/back-to-basics-nicola-bray/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:17:07 +0000http://20788153-6859-5040-2e83-f7c81e330100Nicola Bray runs SEVEN companies. Basically, she’s superwoman. In this talk, she goes back to the very basics of marketing and shares some values of what marketing really means beyond the channels, beyond the hype and beyond the hyperbole. This is also the second ever talk from The Marketing Meetup: Birmingham, which is very exciting!

]]>Video Content 101 – Gary Gumbletonhttps://themarketingmeetup.com/video-content-101-gary-gumbleton/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 14:37:10 +0000http://74d21025-b7d4-a008-7915-bfb1e3655c50Video is still the most powerful tool in a marketer’s toolbox for storytelling, yet, people STILL aren’t taking advantage of it as much as they should be. Enter Gary Gumbleton, founder of CapCo Group. Gary talks eloquently and in simple terms about video marketing and how you should be structuring your activity to ensure not […]

]]>Video is still the most powerful tool in a marketer’s toolbox for storytelling, yet, people STILL aren’t taking advantage of it as much as they should be.

Enter Gary Gumbleton, founder of CapCo Group. Gary talks eloquently and in simple terms about video marketing and how you should be structuring your activity to ensure not only that you’re producing content in the first place, but also that you’re doing it in such a way that you are making the most of the channel.

]]>Growing great businesses – Luca Senatorehttps://themarketingmeetup.com/growing-great-businesses-luca-senatore/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 14:05:20 +0000http://d7af708c-449e-8cf6-1f4d-04cfed8ba287Luca Senatore is a serial entrepreneur, leader, and now – author. Luca has started businesses in a range of disciplines including health clinics and ju-jitsu gyms – but his biggest hit has been leading the agency – Genie Goals: famous for work with Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Mamas & Papas and many more. In this […]

]]>Luca Senatore is a serial entrepreneur, leader, and now – author. Luca has started businesses in a range of disciplines including health clinics and ju-jitsu gyms – but his biggest hit has been leading the agency – Genie Goals: famous for work with Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld, Mamas & Papas and many more.

In this talk Luca explores what, in his eyes, great businesses do and need to have to be able to grow successfully. What is striking is the similarities between growing a great business, and simply having a great life.

]]>Snoozing without losing – Mark Cook (Lightning talk)https://themarketingmeetup.com/snoozing-without-losing-mark-cook-lightning-talk/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:51:51 +0000http://5439e47a-c720-a621-f0fe-8653e195fb1bThis is a BRILLIANT lightning talk from Mark Cook, all about automating social media and the benefits you can reap from them. Just listen to it. You’ll enjoy 🙂

]]>A love letter from creatives to marketers – Jodie Cole (Lightning Talk)https://themarketingmeetup.com/a-love-letter-from-creatives-to-marketers-jodie-cole-lightning-talk/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:45:57 +0000http://ed5ac329-63d0-f49c-3b5a-1f9fbb1d48edJodie Cole is a creative through and through – she’s also a mountain biking champ, but that’s a whole other story. Jodie isn’t a speaker – she’s a bloody awesome creative person. In this talk, she shares something to make you go mmmm and think all about your relationship and how you use creative services.

]]>What punk rock taught me about marketing – Simon Barnett (Lightning Talk)https://themarketingmeetup.com/what-punk-rock-taught-me-about-marketing-simon-barnett-lightning-talk/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:21:47 +0000http://abb4f2e5-0a78-cbdd-b403-a819e900f7c4This might be the best ever title for a talk at the Marketing Meetup ever. In this lightning talk, Simon shares how the punk rock movement taught him to be a great marketer (even though he likes to pretend he’s not really a marketer at all)

]]>This might be the best ever title for a talk at the Marketing Meetup ever. In this lightning talk, Simon shares how the punk rock movement taught him to be a great marketer (even though he likes to pretend he’s not really a marketer at all)